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Interview question · Mobile Application Security

How would you harden the phones of executives and journalists who may be targets of mercenary spyware?

Spyware chains usually arrive through features most people never use. The scored answer trades those features away for the people who need it, and plans for what happens when protection is not enough.

mediumNewPreparation tags: Apple, Google, MicrosoftUpdated Nov 2026

Spyware chains usually arrive through features most people never use. The scored answer trades those features away for the people who need it, and plans for what happens when protection is not enough.

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What would you say before reading the answer?

  1. 01 State the assumptions your answer depends on.
  2. 02 Explain the mechanism and choose a control.
  3. 03 Name a condition that would change your decision.

The worked answer includes an approach, scoring criteria and follow-up questions. Compare the reasoning with your own.

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What if · the follow-ups in this answer

The answer works through 4 follow-ups like an interviewer would

A board member preparing a sensitive acquisition receives an Apple threat notification saying they may have been targeted by mercenary spyware. Their iPhone is three years old, not enrolled in MDM, and Lockdown Mode is off.

  1. What do you tell them to do in the first hour?
  2. What happens to their accounts?
  3. How do you set them up going forward?
  4. How do you summarise hardening for high-risk users?

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